‘Nobody had ever heard of it’: Trump claims he made Juneteenth ‘famous’

President pressured to change campaign rally date after initially scheduling event on 19 June

Donald Trump said that he had polled many people around him and that they had not heard of Juneteenth in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (REUTERS)

Donald Trump has claimed that he made Juneteenth “famous”- adding that “nobody had ever heard of it” prior to the backlash over his decision to hold his upcoming campaign rally on the same date.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump discussed the tensions over his initial decision to hold his first rally in three months on 19 June, the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the US.

“I did something good: I made Juneteenth very famous,” Mr Trump said, referring to news coverage of the rally date. “It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia commemorate or observe Juneteenth, according to a Congressional Research Service report released earlier this month, The WSJ reported.

The three remaining states that do not formally recognise the 19 June as a holiday: North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii, have faced calls to acknowledge the date.

The holiday, also called Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, marks the date in 1865 that news finally reached African Americans in Texas that US President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves living in Confederate states two years earlier.

The president’s decision to hold the rally on the same day as Juneteenth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sparked an outcry from both officials and residents.

African-American leaders told the president it was insensitive to coincide the date of the rally on the day, especially amidst continued national civil unrest in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd.

Tulsa was also previously the site of one of the worst instances of racial violence in US history. In 1921 hundreds of African Americans were massacred in Tulsa by a white mob that burned black-owned businesses and homes.

After facing continued criticism, Mr Trump eventually pushed the rally back a day to 20 June, retaining the 19,000 seat indoor venue at the BOK Centre in Tulsa despite many expressing fears over the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Trump told The WSJ that he had polled many people around him and that they had not heard of Juneteenth.

During the interview, Mr Trump asked an aide if she had heard of the holiday, to which she pointed out that the White House had issued a statement last year commemorating it, The WSJ said.

“Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?” Mr Trump said. “Ok, ok. Good.”

The White House has put out statements on Juneteenth during each of Mr Trump's first three years, the newspaper noted.

Mr Trump took to Twitter last weekend to announce the change in date of the rally, writing that he did so “out of respect for this holiday and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents.”

Prominent figures have argued that the date should be given the same level of recognition as Independence Day.

“July 4th is the birthday of our nation, but Juneteenth is the day where it truly began to fulfil its promise of freedom for all,” Republican leader Todd Gilbert said.

“For the first time since enslaved Africans landed at Jamestown in 1619, the chains of bondage were finally cast off.”